Nick Kristof Explains Why He's Using Video Games To Help Women In The Developing World

After the launch of the game Half the Sky, the journalist and his collaborator Sheryl WuDunn discussed the genesis of the project.

Yesterday saw the launch of Half the Sky, a Facebook game that follows on the heels of New York Times journalist Nick Kristof's book of the same name. The game follows a fictional woman named Radhika, described as "a simple woman from India who wants to make things better … for both herself and women worldwide." Action taken in-game can also be taken in real life. If, for instance, you collect books for girls in the game, that can trigger a real-world donation to Room to Read.

Yesterday, Fast Company held an event with Kristoff, his collaborator Sheryl WuDunn, representatives from Games for Change (the organization behind the game) and Zynga.org, and others, to discuss the power of games to create change. We caught up with Kristoff and WuDunn after to get their thoughts on why they picked a computer game as the next medium to take the message of the Half the Sky movement to the masses.